


The Vampire, The Witch, And Vengeance

by alistoney



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff, M/M, Malec, Supernatural AU - Freeform, hunter!alec, lots of Jace and Alec brotp, mentions of violence and injury, sort of but not really, witch!magnus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-03 18:24:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14001915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alistoney/pseuds/alistoney
Summary: Alec thinks that the vampire case that he and Jace are on in Brooklyn will be just another ordinary case in their lives as hunters. Find the monster, kill it, and you’re done. But when he meets Magnus Bane, a mysterious man who can use magic, everything he thought he knew about hunting monsters changes.Or a Shadowhunters Supernatural AU with a side of Malec





	The Vampire, The Witch, And Vengeance

**Author's Note:**

> This fic went places that I didn’t have planned but I very much like the end result and I’m quite proud of this! I really hope everyone enjoys! 
> 
> Thank you to my amazing beta [Chris](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharonsnatalia) who literally read through this all in a week because I’m a terrible procrastinator 
> 
> And thank you to [fearfrost1211](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fearfrost1211/pseuds/fearfrost1211)who created three different moonboards for this fic that I absolutely adore. You can find those here:[1](https://fear-frost.tumblr.com/post/172016574655/the-vampire-the-witch-and-vengeance-by), [2](https://lightwormsiblings.tumblr.com/post/172051913208/fear-frost-the-vampire-the-witch-and) , [3](https://lightwormsiblings.tumblr.com/post/172051914833/fear-frost-the-vampire-the-witch-and)

Alec is sitting at the kitchen table, coffee in hand, when Jace bursts into the kitchen and unceremoniously drops a newspaper clipping in front of him.

Alec looks up at his partner questioningly. Jace’s eyes are bright and giddy as he grins down at Alec.

“I found us a job,” he points at the article on the front page.

Alec sighs and runs a hand through his hair tiredly, he hasn’t even had his coffee yet. He looks back down at the newspaper and skims the article Jace has pointed to.

_Man Found Dead in His Own Home._

Alec keeps skimming the page, looking for an indication that this has to do with anything supernatural. When he doesn’t find anything, he looks back up at Jace in confusion.

“This could be literally anything. Most probably a normal murder or an accident. Not our thing.” Alec says.

Jace’s eyes are sparkling with excitement and he nods in agreement which confuses Alec even more.

“That’s what it looks like, but I looked into the death online and the man was drained of all his blood. They just didn’t report it because they didn’t want to scare people.”

At that, Alec’s head jerks up. They haven’t been on a job in three days, and honestly, he’s been itching to go kill something. He knows Jace has been too, otherwise he wouldn’t have taken the time to do extra research on something that seemed like a normal thing.

Alec is about to answer, but apparently, Jace isn’t finished yet.

“And get this, there was another guy who died a week ago. Same thing, blood completely drained.”

Alec feels the adrenaline rush into his body as he and Jace make eye contact across the table.

“Vamps,”

Jace grins all sharp teeth and picks the newspaper back up.

“Right here in New York.”

***  
Alec calls Izzy as they’re leaving so she doesn’t freak out when she comes back from her own job with her girlfriend, Lydia, to find the apartment empty.

“Hey Iz, how's the shapeshifter case going?”

He hears a crash in the background and he’s instantly on alert.

“Izzy are you okay? Did I call at a bad time? I can call back later if you’re in the middle of a fight or something.”

He hears the phone hit something hard and his heart starts pounding. What if something has happened to her while she wasn’t paying attention? It would be his fault.

He’s about to yell to Jace that they have to go to West Virginia instead when he hears someone pick the phone back up.

“Sorry, big brother,” Izzy’s laughing and Alec releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding, “Lydia dropped the entire bag of weapons and I was laughing so hard at her face, I dropped the phone.

Alec’s relief turns into anger and he clenches his fist for a second to try and calm himself.

“Don’t _do_ that to me, I thought you’d been hurt or _died_.”

Izzy’s voice softens at that, and he can almost see her smile through the phone.

“I’m okay Alec, I know you worry. But don’t, we’re big girls, we can take care of ourselves, and we’ll call you if anything happens that we can’t deal with on our own. You know that.”

Alec sighs, starting to calm with Izzy’s soothing words. She’s right. He knows they can take care of themselves. He’s seen them do it a hundred times. Lydia and Izzy know each other like the back of their hands and work amazingly well together. It doesn’t make him worry any less about the two of them though. Despite this, he does feel calmer at Izzy’s words. He doesn’t know how she does it but she always knows what to say to make him feel better.

“You’re right, I love you.” He sighs into the phone and Izzy chuckles.

“I love you too. Now, why did you call? I know it wasn’t to be given a heart attack.”

Alec laughs and tells her about the case Jace has found. The siblings always tell each other where they are going and what they are dealing with just in case they end up needing backup. It doesn't usually happen but it always makes Alec feel more secure to know where his sister and brother are at all times. Especially in this mess of a job. Killing monsters for a living means any one of them could die at any moment.

Jace walks in just as Alec is hanging up with Izzy.

“You tell her where we’re going?”

Alec nods and takes the duffle bag of weapons from Jace as they walk out of the building and to the car.

“I don’t get why we have to stay in a motel, we have an apartment here in Brooklyn,” Jace whines and Alec rolls his eyes as he pushes the keys into the ignition and starts the car.

“We don’t want any monsters following us home, do we? It’s better they don’t know where we live. You know that.”

Jace is sprawled out in the passenger seat looking at Alec with shining eyes, and if Alec had been five years younger he probably would have preened under the gaze. Now though, he just takes a hand off the wheel to hit Jace in the arm.

“Doesn’t complaining just for the sake of complaining get exhausting?” He questions with a smirk and flicks his eyes to the passenger seat.

Jace glares at Alec, rubbing his shoulder and sticking his tongue out at Alec in response.

“Real mature Jonathan,” Alec mutters under his breath

“Keep your hands on the wheel _Alexander_ ,” Jace retorts, but when Alec looks over he’s grinning. Soon, the two of them are engaged in a battle of who can come up with the most creative insults.

The game ends when Jace calls Alec a decrepit broomstick and he laughs so hard he almost drives the car off the road.

***  
After Jace and Alec have checked into their motel and dropped their stuff off, they head to the victim’s house to speak with his wife.

Alec runs a hand over his neck where the dress shirt he’s wearing under his suit is rubbing against it uncomfortably.

“Stop that,” Jace says and flicks Alec in the side as they make it to the front door of the house.

Alec ignores him and takes the EMF meter from his pocket instead.

“I’m going to find an excuse to go look around while you talk to the wife.”

Jace groans and turns to Alec. Alec braces himself for more complaining. Sometimes working with Jace feels more like babysitting than working a job. Alec thinks Jace only does it because he knows it annoys Alec and for some reason that amuses him.

“Why do I always have to do the boring job?”

“It’s not boring, you’re getting vital information,” Alec says distractedly, looking up at the house to make sure they’ve gotten the right address.

“Then why don’t you do it?”

Alec sighs and turns to face Jace completely.

“Because we both know if I tried to comfort a distraught stranger it would not go well”

“It’s not like it goes well for me either”

He’s not wrong is the thing. Both of them are pretty awful at comforting people. Jace acts like an ass, Alec is just awkward and never knows what to say. Izzy is the one who is good at it. But she’s not here and Alec is older so he gets to call the shots.

“You’re better than me and that’s what matters.”

It’s not exactly true but Alec doesn’t want to get into an argument right now.

“Why are you even looking around for EMF? We know this is a vamp. EMF is only for ghosts,” Jace tries, taking a new approach.

“Better safe than sorry” Alec replies and knocks on the front door before Jace can reply.

A young woman opens the door. It’s obvious she’s had a rough few days from the bags under her eyes and the frazzled condition of her hair, and Alec feels slightly guilty for bothering her when she’s clearly still grieving. He has no choice though, they need information and a way to get into the house.

“Hello Mrs. Pangborn, FBI, we’d like to ask you a few questions about your husband,” Jace says pulling out his fake badge. Alec pulls out his own from his coat pocket and holds it out to the woman.

She looks at the badges for a second before pulling the door open wider to let them in.

“I already told the police what happened,” she says as she leads them into the living room and gestures for them to take a seat on the large couch in the center of the room.

“The police department called us in to take over the case, and we wanted to ask you some questions ourselves,” Alec says, hoping she won’t ever mention anything about them to the actual police and just take his word for it. It usually works. People tend to blindly trust men in suits who have badges.

She sits down on a chair in front of them and looks between the two of them silently for a moment. He lets her get comfortable with them before asking any questions. From experience, rushing into questioning just leads to distraught people.

“What do you want to know?” She asks finally, tangling her hands together in her lap and looking them both in the eye.

Alec flicks his eyes over to Jace who nods and turns to Mrs. Pangborn with wide comforting eyes.

“Did your husband have any enemies? Anyone who might have wanted to see him gone?”

“I-,” she furrows her brows and stops talking for a moment,

Alec exchanges another glance with Jace. That seems suspicious.

“Not that I know of.” She says finally.

“Are you sure?” Alec hedges because he’s pretty sure she’s lying and this type of information will help them a lot in trying to find the vamp behind the attack.

Jace shoots him a warning look when Mrs. Pangborn turns to him with anger in her eyes.

Alec shuts up at that. They can’t afford to get the victim angry at them and then leave with no information.

“I’m sorry,” he says trying his best to give her a reassuring smile.

She seems to calm down a bit from that and Alec breathes an internal sigh of relief.

“Did you notice anything odd before the incident? Cold spots? Things you can’t explain?” Jace goes on to ask.

Mrs. Pangborn shakes her head solemnly and Alec and Jace exchange a look. Jace nods his head so slightly Alec wouldn’t have noticed it if he hadn’t known Jace since he was 10. It’s an indication to start snooping so Alec nods back before turning to Mrs. Pangborn with a smile.

“Excuse me, could I use your bathroom?” He asks and Mrs. Pangborn nods and gives him directions down the hall.

Once Alec deems he’s out of sight he discreetly pulls out the EMF meter and turns it on.

Instead of going to the bathroom he reroutes to the stairs and makes his way to the master bedroom where the victim had been found.

The room’s been cleaned from the incident, the floor unnaturally polished, but Alec looks around in search for anything out of the ordinary anyway.

The EMF meter is silent in his hands but he had expected that. This was most probably a vamp, not a ghost.

He moves closer to the bed to inspect the floor by it. According to the newspaper, the man had been found by his bed.

To his disappointment, the floor is completely clean here as well.

He gets up and makes his way to the window where he freezes. There’s blood splayed across the window sill. Faded but still, unmistakably blood.

This means whatever had killed the victim had escaped through the window. Alec smiles slightly before giving the room one last cursory glance and making his way back downstairs before Mrs. Pangborn gets suspicious of how long he was spending in the bathroom.

Jace is saying goodbye to Mrs. Pangborn as Alec makes his way back into the living room and he goes up to shake her hand as well.

“Did you get anything?” Alec asks as they make their way back to the car.

Jace is grinning wide and he nods.

“Our victim and the victim from a week ago were apparently pretty good friends. The vamp might be targeting these people for a specific reason. I just don’t know what yet, but we should definitely look into both victim’s histories.”

Alec nods in agreement.

“I found blood on the window sill even though the man was found next to the bed. The killer probably escaped through the window. They’d have to be slightly human to be able to open a window without damaging it so I think our guess that it’s a vamp is pretty accurate.”

Jace turns to Alec with bright eyes and Alec feels himself smile.

“Looks like we’ve got work to do.”

***  
Magnus wakes up to the insistent buzzing of his phone.

He ignores it the first few times in favor of getting more sleep, god knows he needs it after he’d stayed up the past two nights helping a young witch figure out a counterspell for a potion gone wrong. But when the buzzing disrupts him for the third time in ten minutes, Magnus relents and snatches the phone from his bedside table.

“Hello?”

“Magnus, we have a slight problem.”

Magnus recognizes Luke, the pack leader of a werewolf clan that lives on the outskirts of Brooklyn’s voice and sits up in bed. If Luke is calling this early it must be important.

“What happened?” He asks, trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes and get his brain to function enough to understand Luke’s words.

“I think you need to come see this for yourself.” Luke answers and Magnus grumbles as he pushes his duvet off of himself and gets out of bed.

He shuts off his phone after Luke tells him where to meet and just stands in the middle of the room for a minute, trying his hardest to ignore how comfortable his bed looks at the moment.

It’s 5 o'clock in the godforsaken morning. Sometimes Magnus wonders why he does the things that he does.

***  
When he steps out of the portal and into the Jade Wolf, Luke is waiting for him. He has a stricken expression on his face, and Magnus’ annoyance at being woken up so early dissolves.

“Lucian,” he greets grinning at his friend, despite the werewolves who all seem to be staring at the two of them with disdain.

Luke looks over at the only people in the restaurant who don’t seem to be paying attention to him and Magnus.

There’s a boy, who looks about 20 years old sitting at one of the booths and a redhead seated in front of him. Magnus sees Luke’s brow furrow as his eyes land on her.

“He’s a vamp, recently turned,” Luke explains and Magnus nods but he’s surprised they’re talking about the boy. It seemed by Luke’s reaction that the girl was the main problem.

“I got him some fresh blood but he had turned up starving.” Luke surveys the room uneasily, “the pack doesn’t like having a vampire here” he goes on softly so only Magnus can hear.

Magnus hadn’t missed the way Luke’s eyes lingered on Clary so he raises his eyebrows and fixes him with a knowing look.

“And the girl?”

Luke seems to shake his head slightly at that, and when he turns to Magnus he has a wistful look in his eyes that Magnus has never seen on the werewolf’s face.

“I-l don’t know, from what I know she’s completely human, there’s just something about her,” he finally replies, trailing off slightly at the end. Magnus has never seen Luke look so lost so he decides to let it go.

“I’ll go talk to the boy.”

He makes his way over to the booth where the two of them are sitting and stands next to the table.

The redhead looks up first, and he makes eye contact with her.

“May I sit here?” He asks as gently as he possibly can when he’s running on around two hours of sleep.

She eyes him suspiciously before turning to the boy who shrugs at her in indifference.

“Okay,” she says flicking her green eyes back to Magnus and he flashes a wide smile before sliding into the booth next to her.

“I’m Magnus,” he greets.

“Simon,” the boy says. It’s the first thing he’s said since Magnus walked over here, and apparently it’s broken some sort of dam in him because words start to pour out of him like he can’t stop them.

“Look, I don’t know what’s happening to me. I was just walking home from a really late gig and I think I got jumped but that’s all I remember. And then I woke up and Clary,” he abruptly points at the girl in front of him before going on, “was somehow with me and I was really hungry but not for food. And then I somehow got here in a haze and Luke gave me- he gave me blood.”

He looks horrified and practically whispers the last word.

“Sounds like you’ve had a rough couple of days,” Magnus says with a sigh, ignoring the glare Clary sends his way as he says it.

“Rough? Try impossible! What the hell is going on?”

“I believe Luke has told you what’s going on,” Magnus replies, lifting his eyebrows knowingly.

“But that- it’s impossible,” Simon stutters out, he looks at Clary with panic in his eyes and Magnus feels a twinge of sympathy for him. He knows what it’s like to not understand what you are.

“Vampires don’t exist,” Simon has gotten up now and started pacing next to the table. Apparently, his panic has led him to be unaware of the werewolves who move closer to the table as he moves.

Simon stops pacing and widens his eyes at Clary. “Clary, tell him, tell him they don’t exist.”

When Clary doesn’t reply, Simon starts muttering to himself.

“This has to be some sort of terrible nightmare.”

Magnus turns his gaze to Clary to find that she’s looking thoughtfully between him, Luke, and Simon.

“Simon,” She says, and the boy stops mid panicked rant to look at her. “I think you should hear him out before panicking.”

He looks at her a second before sighing and agreeing.

Magnus nods in appreciation at the redhead. He’s beginning to like her. He’s still tired from his two nights of no sleep and probably wouldn’t have been able to convince Simon to listen otherwise.

When Simon is settled back into the booth Magnus starts talking.

“Luke isn’t lying, Simon. You’re a vampire. You were bitten and recently turned. I know it sounds crazy, but I think a part of you knows it’s true and just doesn’t want to believe it.”

Simon doesn’t answer, but the look in his eyes as he flicks his gaze to Clary’s tells him that he’s right.

“I’m not a vampire but I’ve known and helped many in my life. If you’d accept it, I’d be willing to help you adjust,” Magnus goes on, trying his best to sound gentle.

Simon snorts, “What? You’re going to be my vampire sponsor or something?”

Magnus grins lightly and is surprised to find Simon smiling tentatively back at him.

“You could call it that,” He gets out of the booth and turns to the two of them. “If you would like, you’re welcome to stay with me until you get your bearings.”

He and Clary turn to each other and seem to have a conversation with just their eyes. Magnus wonders if there’s something going on between them or if they’re just that close. The way Clary looks at Simon with such fierce protectiveness creates a longing in Magnus’ heart that he hasn’t felt in years.

“Okay,” Clary says finally, answering for Simon, “But only if I can come too.”

***  
When they enter his loft, Magnus hears a gasp behind him and smirks to himself before turning around.

“Nice isn’t it?” He asks.

“How do you afford this place?” Simon is spinning in place looking around at the room in awe.

Magnus sends a wink his way and grins.

“That, young vampire, is a secret.”

Simon's eyes widen and he turns to Clary. “He’s a thief. We’re staying in a thief’s house.”

Clary rolls her eyes and walks further into the loft.

“Calm down, Simon. He’s not a thief,” She turns to Magnus with questioning eyes. “You’re not a thief right?”

“I’m not,” Magnus agrees, and Simon rounds on him.

“That’s exactly what a thief would say,” He mutters but accepts the bottle of blood that Magnus hands him and stares at it with a mix of disgust and longing.

“You should drink that before you get starved again.”

He gestures to Clary. “Why don’t you and I go to the living room and give Simon some time to himself.”

Clary nods and follows Magnus into the living room, casting a glance back at Simon as they go.

They sit down on the couch. Clary looks more weary with Simon not around and Magnus wonders if she’s been putting on a front to make Simon feel better. If she has been, she’s a magnificent friend and actress.

“Clary,” he asks softly, “do you have any idea how this might have happened? Or when?”

Clary sighs and flicks her gaze back to where they’d left Simon.

“I don’t know, he started acting weird a couple days ago. We see each other every day and he’d missed movie night so I went to go check up on him. He was leaving the house when I got there but he looked weird, different,” She closes her eyes as if to gather the courage to keep going. “So I decided to follow him and we ended up at the Jade Wolf and well, you know the story from there.”

Magnus sighs, it’s not much to work from but it’s a start.

“Thanks,” he says and when he catches Clary’s worried eyes he places a soothing hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, Simon will be okay. I’m going to help him.”

The next morning when Magnus wakes up, Simon is gone and there’s another death in the news.

***  
“Wake up sunshine!” Alec calls as he’s pulling his boots on.

Jace grumbles from the bed next to Alec’s and stuffs his head under the pillow.

“If we want to get to the morgue before the _actual_ forensic pathologist we have to leave now Jace.”

Jace throws a pillow at Alec’s head instead of answering. Alec doges easily, Jace doesn’t have the best aim when he’s just woken up.

“Give me five minutes,” he mumbles. Alec knows it will be more than five minutes but he doesn't argue him when Jace covers his head with the bedsheets.

“I’ll be waiting outside, don’t make me have to come and drag you out of bed,” he tells Jace before exiting the room and going to wait out by the car.

Jace joins him fifteen minutes later. It’s not five minutes, but Alec didn’t have to drag him forcefully out of bed so he counts it as a win.  
  
***  
They make it to the morgue and manage to sneak in easily using fake badges and uniforms.

Alec is mentally patting himself on the back for the smooth break-in when he stops in his tracks.

There’s already a man standing in the room. At first, Alec thinks it’s one of the actual pathologists and an excuse for their presence is halfway to his lips when he realizes that the man is chanting something under his breath and the words die on his tongue.

“What the fuck?” Jace says, breaking the silence and the man turns around in one graceful motion.

Alec has his gun in his hand and pointing at the man faster than he can think, Jace mirroring the action beside him.

Once Alec’s brain catches up to his body, he registers that the man in front of him is one of the most beautiful people he’s ever seen in his life.

He has dark hair that’s elegantly spiked up and dark calculating eyes that grab Alec’s attention and hold it there. There’s blue satin peeking out from under his fake lab coat and when he raises a single eyebrow and cocks his lips up into a sly grin Alec is almost positive his heart nearly beats right out of his chest.

Jace doesn’t seem to be as stunned as Alec is because he’s glaring at the unfairly pretty man.

“What are you?” And then when the man doesn’t answer he redirects the question to Alec, “What is he?”

“Jace, this is not the time,” Alec grits out, trying to tear his eyes away from the gleaming brown that they’re locked with.

Jace goes on as if Alec hadn’t said anything.

“A shapeshifter? Witch?”

The man finally takes a step forward, as if he’s not one bit scared that there are two guns pointed at him while he’s unarmed.

“Are you done?” He looks at Jace unimpressed and Alec would have laughed at the look of incredulity on Jace’s face if he knew what the hell was going on.

“Don’t take another step forward or I’ll shoot,” Alec warns when the man starts to get too close to them for comfort.

The man slowly brings his hands up, but he’s wearing a dark smirk and Alec’s heart stops for a second.

“I didn’t know they made hunters this pretty,” He says. Alec doesn’t miss the way his eyes move up and down his body once before they land back on his face and he grins.

“I’m Magnus, and who might you be?”

He practically purrs the words out and Alec doesn’t know what to do. Is this man flirting with him?

He would have stood there frozen for who knows how long is Jace hadn’t cleared his throat and given him a look.

“It was lovely chatting with you, even if you didn’t answer my questions, but I think I’d best be on my way,” Magnus says, while Alec and Jace are attempting to have a silent conversation about what the hell to do.

Before either of them can do anything, Magnus sends a glittering wink Alec’s way and then he's gone.

Both of them lower their guns when they realize he’s disappeared and Jace turns to Alec incredulously.

“What the fuck just happened?”

***  
Magnus ends up outside of the morgue and starts muttering frustrated curses under his breath as he speed walks down the street.

Stupid hunters and their guns and their self-righteousness. He hates them. He had been so close to finishing the tracking spell on the body when they’d burst in guns ablaze without even asking any questions.

 _Hunters_ , they just kill all monsters whether they’re guilty or not. He rolls his eyes bitterly as he tries to come up with another way to make sure Simon isn’t behind the deaths that seem to keep happening.

He decides that an extra hand or two wouldn’t hurt and heads to Catarina’s.

***  
“Cat!” Magnus calls when he lets himself into her small apartment.

Unlike Magnus, Cat has decided not to get involved in the whole monster business despite being a witch. Instead, she works at the hospital in the city and sends any people she thinks could be werewolves or vampires that are going to turn, Magnus’ way.

They are a good team.

Cat pokes her head into the hall and grins when she sees Magnus.

“Magnus! I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.” She moves into the room and beckons Magnus to the living room.

“I was helping a young witch create a counterspell. It became a lot more work than I’d anticipated.”

He makes his way to the couch and flops himself onto the soft material.

“I was wondering if you could help me with a tracking spell-“

“Why do you need help with a tracking spell? You perfected those when you were barely 4 feet tall.” Magnus snorts and looks up at Cat through his eyelashes, a tired grin on his face.

“The spell isn’t complete.”

Magnus launches into the story of finding Simon and the unfairly pretty hunter than had interrupted him in the middle of his tracking spell.

“Ragnor was always better than me with this stuff. I’m better with healing,” Cat says with a heavy smile and Magnus’ throat grows tight.

Magnus doesn’t want to think about Ragnor. Or the fact that the friend who used to take up his couch space and ask him for advice about the novel he was writing while simultaneously insulting him is gone forever.

“Well he’s not here is he?” He gets out, “so I need your help.”

Cat looks at him with sad eyes and Magnus darts his eyes away. He’s not going to cry.

“Okay,” Cat says softly and Magnus can see that her eyes are shining with unshed tears. “Sorry, shouldn’t have brought it up.”

Magnus feels an overwhelming force of love for her in that moment. He gives her a watery smile and they get to work.

***  
“Alec!”

Alec jerks his head up from where he’d been pouring over a book about magic-wielding creatures.

Ever since they’d faced the man-Magnus at the morgue Alec can’t stop thinking about him. He had been so intriguing and Alec was distracted by him in a way he’s never been during a job before. He had also been annoyingly attractive and Alec can’t let that thought leave his mind either, much to his frustration.

Since he can’t seem to get the man out of his mind he figures finding out what he is, is probably a good idea. He’d been using magic. That much Alec is sure of. He’s probably a witch, but Alec wants to be sure.

“I think I found something,” Jace walks into the room and trails off when he sees what Alec is reading.

“Are you still hung up on the weird dude at the morgue?” Jace rolls his eyes and pushes the book out of the way to place his laptop down in front of Alec.

“He has to have something to do with it right? It couldn’t have been a coincidence.”

“Probably,” Jace says distractedly as he pulls up something on his laptop. Alec doesn’t understand why he isn’t more concerned about this unknown person who seems to be in the middle of this whole thing

When Alec looks at the screen he sees a missing persons report.

“Simon Lewis went missing around the same time that the deaths started occurring.”

Alec nods, his attention now purely on the laptop in front of him instead of the Magnus.

“There is also a report of someone seeing him two blocks away from the Mr. Pangborn’s neighborhood a few hours before the murder was called in.”

Jace lifts his eyes to lock with Alec’s and they don’t even have to say anything for Jace to know Alec understands what he’s insinuating.

“Simon could be our vamp.”

***  
Alec and Jace end up at an apartment on the edge of Brooklyn where Mrs. Lewis had told them Simon’s best friend who was the last person who had seen him lived.

The door opens a crack when they knock and a small red headed girl looks up at the two of them with narrowed green eyes.

The girl stops her suspicious roaming when they land on Jace and her look turns into one of awe. Alec isn’t surprised by that. Jace usually has that effect on women.

He internally rolls his eyes.

What _does_ surprise him is when Alec feels Jace tense next to him. When he turns to look at him he sees that Jace’s eyes are widened and he’s staring at the girl with a similar sort of awe.

Alec subtly pushes Jace’s shoulder before pulling out his fake FBI badge.

“FBI, are you Clary Fray?”

The girl studies the badge a second before she pulls the door further open.

“Why are you asking?”

“We’re looking into the disappearance of her friend, Simon Lewis.”

At that, the girls eyes flash with recognition, and Alec raises his eyebrows.

“You’re Clary,” He states.

The girl, presumably Clary, squints her eyes one more time before nodding and moving so Alec and Jace can come into the apartment.

“What do you want to know?” Clary asks, getting straight to the point. Alec watches as she looks at them both defiantly, though she averts her eyes once Jace makes eye contact with her.

“We were told that you were the last person to see Simon before he disappeared. Where did you last see him?” Alec asks because Jace is still too busy gawking at Clary. Alec is going to need to give him a talk about being professional later.

“The last time I saw him was at his band’s gig at the club downtown. Pandemonium.” She says it with certainty and doesn’t break eye contact with Alec as she says it. If Alec wasn’t a trained professional he would have believed her. All it takes is the slight twitch of her hand and the way her eyes hide a poorly concealed panic as they float away from his. He knows she’s lying.

Alec flicks a glance at Jace to see that he’s finally stopped staring at Clary longingly. The looks he exchanges with him tells Alec that Jace doesn’t believe her either.

“That’s a nice story and all,” Jace says and Alec watches as Clary’s eyes land on his and they stare at each other for a long moment, “but it’s not true.” Jace finishes and Alec watches the panic Clary had been trying to hide flood through.

Jace’s eyes don’t leave hers and after a moment she sighs in resignation.

“I knew where he was yesterday,” her eyes finally flick away from Jace’s and land on Alec. He’s surprised to see the amount of determination in her eyes as she stares him down.

“And what about now?” Alec asks,

“I don’t know. He’s gone. But I’m going to find him. If anyone can, it’s me.”

There’s a fire in her eyes and Alec doesn’t doubt for a second that she wont stop until she finds her friend.

“We’ll find him,” Alec says. He doesn’t mention the part about the fact that they will probably have to kill him. He doesn’t think Clary would take learning her friend was a vampire who had killed multiple people very well.

“No, I’m coming with you. I can’t just sit here, he’s my best friend. If anything were to happen to him I would never forgive myself.”

“You can come,” Jace says quickly and Alec shoots him a warning look. They didn’t take people they didn’t know on jobs. It was an unspoken rule.

Jace glares back at him and Alec is about to voice his thoughts when Clary starts speaking.

“You can’t stop me from looking for him. I know where to start looking and I’ll do it either way. You just have to decide whether you want me to help you or not.”

Alec bristles in annoyance. This girl has a death wish. If he and Jace had actually been FBI agents he doesn’t know what would have happened to her.

Clary stares him down with fire in her eyes and Alec groans internally. She wasn’t going to give up.

“Fine,” he grumbles, “but stay out of our way.”

Clary tells them Simon was staying with a man who said he’d help him. Alec’s mind immediately springs to Magnus and he berates himself for it. It could be _anyone_. Why can’t he stop thinking about the man? He’s on a job, he can't be distracted by attractive men who wink at him and call him pretty.

He shakes his head to clear his thoughts and barely catches Clary starting to stutter over her words as if she’s trying to hide something again.

Alec rolls his eyes. He doesn’t have time for this.

“We should start looking where Simon was staying for clues. But you should know he- Simon isn’t exactly- he’s-“

Alec feels his eyes bug out of his head when Jace crosses his arms and says “We know he’s a vampire,” without preamble.

Alec turns to him in horror.

“ _Jace_ , we aren’t supposed to tell people about that,” he grits out under his breath. He sees Clary look curiously between the two of them out of the corner of his eye.

“Did you really think she didn’t know?”

“How do you know that?” Clary demands with wide eyes when Alec doesn’t answer Jace.

Alec rolls his eyes, they don’t have the time to explain that they’re hunters who hunt a wide variety of things that go bump in the night. He’d rather not deal with a freaked out girl right now.

“How do you?” Jace counters. It’s like he doesn’t even remember that Alec’s in the room. Alec glares as Jace and Clary both explain their situations. He doesn’t really pay attention until he hears the word Magnus and suddenly his entire attention is on the conversation.

“Magnus?” He asks almost involuntarily and Jace and Clary both turn to him.

“He helped Simon and I,” Clary explains and Alec narrows his eyes at her. If Magnus was working with Simon, he was probably helping him with the killings. Clary could be in on it too. For some reason, Alec doesn’t like the thought of having to fight or even kill Magnus. He’s killed dozens of monsters before and Magnus is definitely not human so he doesn’t understand why he feels a pit in his stomach at the thought of hurting him.

He’s startled out of his thoughts when Clary and Jace rise from the couch and stare down at Alec.

“Come on, we’re going to check Magnus’ loft and see if Simon came back,” Jace says as he ushers Clary towards the door.

Alec shakes himself to get rid of his thoughts about Magnus and stands to follow them. He can’t be distracted, for all he knows, Clary could be leading them straight into a trap.

***  
They’re on their way to the loft when they hear a scream coming from one of the houses. Alec hits the breaks without thinking and throws himself out of the car and towards the scream.

Jace is hot on his heels. Alec sees Clary getting up to follow. He turns towards her. He’s not about to go into a fight where he has to worry about her safety as well.

“Don’t even think about it Little Girl,” He says warningly. “Don’t leave this car or so help me I will-“

He’s cut off by Jace grabbing his shoulder and pulling him to the house, muttering under his breath about leaving her alone.

Alec sends one last warning glare Clary’s way before letting Jace pull him to the door of the house.

***  
Magnus decided to take the long route home from Cat’s to think. Cat had helped him finish the tracking spell, and they’d figure out that Simon wasn’t behind the murders. Magnus feels a bit more at ease. Despite knowing the kid for merely a day, he’d developed a sense of protectiveness over him.

He’s walking through a seemingly ordinary neighborhood in Brooklyn when he hears a scream and stops dead in his tracks.

It could be anything. It probably _doesn’t_ have anything to do with the supernatural but Magnus finds he can’t take that chance. Before he can even think about it he’s turning on his heels and hurrying towards the sound.

As soon as he turns the corner and comes to a stop in front of the street where the scream had come from, Magnus is met with the sight of the blond and dark haired hunters he’d seen earlier.

He watches as the blond kicks down the door and they both run in.

Magnus lets out a frustrated noise and makes his way to the door. These hunters are becoming a real pain in his ass. Even if one of them _is_ unfairly beautiful.

When Magnus gets into the house, he’s met with the sight of a man face down on the ground, blood pooling around him, Simon standing behind the man, hands up in a defensive posture, and the two hunters on the other side of the room, wooden stakes aimed to throw.

Well, at least they weren’t _completely_ incompetent and knew how to kill a vampire.

“Boys,” Magnus says calmly, even though he isn’t really feeling all that calm. If either of the two hunters throws their stale he has no doubt that Simon will die. Hunters usually have good aim.

He sees the dark haired one, the _beautiful_ one, hesitate slightly when he sees Magnus. Magnus feels his heart jump when he sees the steely look disappear from his hazel eyes for a second and his grip on the stake loosen the smallest bit.

Magnus takes it as an indication that he’s willing to listen to him.

“Alec,” the blond says warningly and Magnus sees the hazel turn hard between one second and the next. Magnus feels the frustration that had been bubbling to the surface earlier return. Of course the hunter—Alec—wasn’t actually going to listen to him. Magnus had his hopes much to high.

“Not you again,” Alec says, and Magnus rolls his eyes.

“I’m offended,” he says, pressing his hand to his heart in a grand gesture that makes both hunters furrow their brows in confusion. “Most people quite enjoy my presence, I’ll have you know.”

Before Magnus can say anything else, Simon makes the mistake of lowering his hands and taking a step forward. Three things happen at the same time then: The blond throws the stake straight at Simon’s heart, Alec turns and yells something, and Clary storms into the room, eyes dark and furious.

If Magnus had been a second too late, Simon would have died. But he’s the most powerful witch in Brooklyn so he stops the stake with a flick of his wrist and it goes flying into the wall.

The blond stares after it open mouthed for a second before he turns to Magnus in a defensive stance, Alec also turns and matches his partner. Clary is still burning with rage, and Magnus is actually kind of excited to see what she’s going to do.

“I thought I told you to stay in the car?”

“And let you _kill_ my best friend?” Clary all but screeches out, “I never should have trusted you!”

The blond looks like he’s been shot, and he’s staring at Clary with guilt on his face.

Clary doesn’t pay him any mind, running up to Simon and checking him for injuries like a worried mother.

“He killed innocent people,” Alec says, voice hard.

Magnus rolls his eyes. _Hunters_. They never stop to consider that their first instinct could be wrong.

“ _What?_ No! I would never. I-I heard a scream and I came to help-“

“He didn’t kill them,” Magnus cuts him off calmly before Simon can launch into a rambly defense that would no doubt last much longer than it needed to be.

“Who even are you? Why should we trust you?” The blond asks, eyes suspicious.

“You shouldn’t,” Magnus answers honestly, “but I _do_ have information that might help you on this little quest of yours.”

Alec looks at him passively but Magnus can tell from his eyes that he’s curious so he keeps talking.

“Simon didn’t kill those people, _or_ this one despite what it might look like.”

The blond tries to interrupt but to his surprise Alec holds a hand up to stop him. His eyes stay locked on Magnus.

Magnus absolutely does not preen under the gaze thank you very much. He doesn’t like hunters even if they _are_ pretty and looking at him like _that_.

“If you hunters had stopped your wild goose chase for long enough to actually think you would have realized that this isn’t a vampire attack.”

Alec looks like he’s surprised but he doesn't say anything.

“But _no_ , you hunters aren’t capable of rational thought. It’s just shoot first, ask questions later right?”

They both look stunned and the blond has the audacity to look offended when the the two of them had quite literally _just_ been doing exactly what he’d said they were.

Alec’s gaze hold a strange mix of emotion as he looks from Magnus to Simon and then back again. Magnus can’t figure out what he’s feeling.

“He could be lying,” The blond says decisively and Magnus narrows his eyes at him.

Alec looks back at Magnus again and there’s still the strangeness in his eyes that unsettles Magnus. He stares a beat, their eyes lock, and then Alec turns to Jace.

“But what if he’s not?” Alec doesn’t say it but the unspoken _and we just almost killed an innocent person_ hangs heavy in the air. Alec looks stricken at the thought and that surprises Magnus. He hadn’t expected a hunter to feel remorse about something like this.

He blames the surprise for the reason that he turns to the two hunters, smiling a beatific smile and tells them the information Cat had helped him find.

“What you’re looking for is an impundulu.”

“A _what_?” one of the hunters asks, but he doesn’t find out who, because he grabs Simon and Clary and portals them out of the house.

***  
After they’d removed all their fingerprints from the crime scene and anonymously called the police, Alec and Jace had returned to their motel in defeat.

They don’t know if Magnus is working with Simon and Clary to kill the people or if he’s telling the truth. Alec is leaning towards him telling the truth but Jace says it’s just because he thinks Magnus is attractive. And while that _might_ be true it’s not why he thinks he’s telling the truth. There was something about the way he was hesitant about giving them the information. And then the fact that he did, despite announcing that he hated hunters.

Alec had had trouble falling asleep that night, thoughts of Magnus and Clary and Simon and impundulus keeping him up. Well, _mostly_ thoughts of Magnus, but he’s not going to tell anyone that.

When he gets out of bed he’s surprised to find Jace’s bed empty. And once he comes out of the shower to Jace whistling and opening his laptop Alec narrows his eyes in realization.

“You hooked up with the little girl didn’t you.”

Jace rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling way too wide for nine in the morning

“Her name is Clary,” he says simply, typing something up on his laptop, still grinning wide, “and I don’t kiss and tell.”

Alec glares, and Jace nonchalantly looks at whatever he’s looking at on his laptop.

“How did you even manage that? I’m pretty sure she hates both of us.”  
  
Jace wiggles his eyebrows suggestively.

“Have you _seen_ me?”

Alec makes a disgusted noise and grabs a pair of clothes, retreating back into the bathroom to change.

When he returns, Jace is looking at the laptop with intense concentration and his leg is jiggling under the table incessantly. Alec knows that means he’s frustrated.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, running the towel through his hair.

“There’s not a lot on impundulus on the internet, or well not a lot that’s reliable at least.”

“So, you’ve decided to trust Magnus?”

“You think he’s telling the truth and I trust your judgement Alec. So yeah, we’re going with this weird impundulu theory. Also Simon’s annoying but he doesn’t look like he’d be able to kill a _rat_ let alone 3 people.”

Alec laughs lightly at that, trying to hide his relief over Jace trusting him.

“I guess we need to call our resident lore expert then.” Alec says, pulling his phone out and pressing on Izzy’s contact.

“Hello?” Izzy sounds slightly out of breath and Alec grimaces. She could be in the middle of a fight and he might be distracting her, after all she _is_ on her own case too.

“Iz how many times have I told you not to answer your phone if you’re in the middle of a fight,”

Izzy laughs on the other side of the phone and Alec narrows his eyes when he also hears Lydia’s laugh much too close to the phone for comfort.

“Actually,” she giggles, “Lydia and I just finished our case, and we were _celebrating_ , if you know what I mean.”

Alec very much does know what she means. He wishes he didn’t. Don’t get him wrong Alec is ecstatic that his little sister has found someone who understands this life who she can be with, but that doesn’t mean he wants to know about her sex life.

He can’t keep the disgust from his voice as he cuts her off in the middle of her sentence.

“I’ll just call back later,” He says quickly, already making to end the call.

“Nonsense, we’ve just finished up.” Alec grimaces again. “What do you need Big Brother?”

Alec shakes his head once to clear it of thoughts of Izzy and Lydia, before he launches into the entire story of the last few days.

When he’s finished, Izzy is quiet for a moment.

“So Magnus,” she says and Alec can almost see her knowing smirk.

“Why does everyone keep _doing_ that,” Alec whines.

“Well, you seem to like him quite a bit,” Izzy says, voice softer than it was the first time.

Alec rolls his eyes. This isn’t the time to be talking about Magnus and how Alec may or may not want to kiss him.

“Can you please just tell me what you know about impundulus?” He sighs and Izzy decides to let it go for once. Alec is grateful.

“Impundulus are familiars of witches. They’re known for sucking their victims dry of blood. Which is probably why you thought it was a vamp. They work for their master so the only way to stop them is to find the witch they belong to and kill them.”

Alec groans inwardly, how are they going to track down a witch that they know absolutely nothing about.

“They usually cause storms and lighting and the such,” Izzy goes on, “so if you can find where the storm originated you might be able to find where the witch is hiding out.”

Alec nods, they can do that. Hopefully.

“Thanks Iz,” he murmurs into the phone.

“No problem big bro, Lydia and I will come help you guys out since we’re done here and you guys are in Brooklyn anyway.”

Alec grins. He’s missed her, even if it _has_ only been a week.

***  
He and Jace work for hours looking online at meteorology websites and weather forecasts and reading textbooks on how to interpret the data about the surprise storms that have occurred in Brooklyn in the past couple weeks.

After what feels like ages Alec feels like he has enough weather knowledge to become a professional meteorologist, but they have _also_ pinpointed a 2 mile radius of where the storm had originated.

They look up all the people who live in the area but get stuck when they realize that they don’t have any way of figuring out if any of the people are witches.

Alec groans in frustration but Jace is grinning at him knowingly.

“What?” Alec asks, head in his hands, he’s running on two hours of sleep he’s not in the mood for Jace’s antics.

“Call Magnus. He’ll be able to figure this out, and he might be of some help for killing the witch.”

Alec narrows his eyes at Jace. Had he heard that correctly? Jace wants to call Magnus? Magnus who Jace was ready to shoot just yesterday?

“What makes you think I’d have his number?”

“Oh Alec,” Jace says, letting out a long suffering sigh, “oh poor oblivious Alec.”

“What?” Alec says again. His sleep deprived brain can’t really follow this conversation.

“I’m just saying,” Jace, pulls out his own phone and swipes through it at he speaks, “ I bet he’d _want_ you to have his number.”

Alec feels himself blush and curses his cheeks for betraying him.

“Shut up,” he mumbles, head still in his hands.

Jace shrugs before putting his phone on speaking and laying it between the two of them.

The screen reads _Clary_.

“Hello?” Clary’s voice sounds tired on the other end of the line. Alec can relate.

“Are you at Magnus’?” Jace asks without preamble, “we need to talk to him and my brother is stupid and hasn’t asked for his number yet.”

Alec sends a glare Jace’s way, Jace just shrugs unperturbed. He’s much to used to Alec’s death glare.

“Yeah, we’re at his loft, he’s right here, let me put it on speaker.”

Alec is surprised to see Jace smiling softly at the sound of Clary’s voice. He’s never had that look on his face before. Alec grins slightly at the sight.

“Hunters,” Magnus greets once Clary puts them in speaker.

“We have names,” Jace grumbles out.

“Jace and Alec,” Alec supplies nervously because he’s not sure he’s ever told Magnus their names and he doesn’t know what to do with himself now that he’s actually having a real conversation with Magnus.

“I know your name _Alexander_ ,” Magnus all but purrs, and Alec can’t stop himself from blushing. He glares when Jace looks at him questioningly.

“We um- we found some stuff out about impundulus,” Alec stutters out and curses himself for being so affected by Magnus. They aren’t even talking face to face. Why is this so hard?

He lets Jace dive into their findings, cutting in here and there when Jace doesn’t explain things fully.

When they finish, Magnus is silent on the other end of the line for a few moments.

For a second Alec thinks he’s going to laugh at them and tell them they’re horribly wrong. He steels himself for the embarrassment. Instead Magnus chuckles lightly.

“Now these are some hunters that I can work with. Come meet me at my loft, I can look at this location you’ve narrowed down. And I might have some information that could be helpful to you.”

Alec shares a surprised look with Jace as Magnus rattles off his address, and Alec scribbles it down.

***  
When Alec and Jace arrive Magnus leads them to the living room where Luke, Simon, and Clary are all sitting as well.

“Who is he?” Jace asks, pointing at Luke.

“I’m the leader of the Brooklyn werewolf pack. Magnus asked me to help him with this impundulu that’s been killing people,” He sticks his hand out to shake and Magnus watches as Alec stares in shock.

Magnus grins despite himself. Alec’s cute when he’s shocked and trying hard not to show it.

He shakes Luke’s hand and sits down in the unoccupied seat in front of Clary and Simon.

He pulls out his laptop and Magnus gets slightly distracted by the way his fingers move across the keys. He’s only pulled out of his thoughts when Jace starts speaking.

“Do you know of any witches who live in this area?” Jace asks as Alec hands his laptop over.

Magnus scans the laptop as he answers them. He narrows his eyes when he recognizes one of the addresses in the area Jace and Alec had blocked off.

“I have to say I’m impressed with you hunters.”

Alec rolls his eyes. “You know we’re not incompetent, right?”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Magnus teases back and grins delightedly when Alec flushes and smiles slightly back at him.

“The witches name is Iris Rouse. She’s been known to cause trouble so I’m not surprised. She’s powerful but she shouldn’t be too hard to stop.”

The two of them exchange a look before Alec nods.

“We gave you our part, what information did you have for us?” Jace asks.

Magnus moves his eyes back to the laptop, feigning nonchalance. He knows his words will shock them even more.

“All the victims were ex-circle members.”

He watches as Jace and Alec share another look. They have a conversation with just their eyes so Magnus shifts his gaze to the other people in the room.

Luke looks just as surprised by Magnus’ words. He watches as Luke looks between Clary and him and back until he rests his gaze on Magnus. Magnus knows this opens old wounds for him. He wishes he didn’t have to bring it up to him. He knows Luke will be happy he did though.

“What’s the circle?” Simon asks from next to Clary. The two of them have been surprisingly silent this whole time.

Luke still looks stunned so Magnus answers.

“The circle was a group of young hunters who banded together on the premise of making the world completely monster free. The monsters were obviously not okay with that, not all of us being murderers and all. They heard about the uprising and there was a huge battle, most of the circle was wiped out. Their leader, Valentine Morgenstern included-“

Luke cuts him off with a hand on his shoulder, and Magnus stops talking. He knows Valentine is a tough subject for Luke, as the two of them had been best friends, and Luke had been head over heels in love with Valentine’s wife Jocelyn. He decides he won’t mention Valentine. But he has to mention Jocelyn no matter how much it will open old wounds for Luke. He takes a deep breath.

“The witch is after the remaining circle members as revenge for what they tried to do all those years ago. The only one left in Brooklyn is Jocelyn Fairchild. She owns an art store downtown and goes by Jocelyn Fray now.”

He sees Luke take a sharp intake of breath, and Clary pales where she’s still on the couch. Simon is looking at Clary in alarm. Magnus is thankful to see that Alec and Jace look just as confused as him. He understands Luke’s reaction but how do Simon and Clary know Jocelyn?

“Jocelyn _Fray_?” Clary stutters out.

“Yes?” Magnus questions.

“You must have something wrong. That’s my mom. She’s not a hunter she’s-“

Luke turns to Clary with wide eyes and in the many years Magnus has known him, he’s never seen the amount of fear that he sees in his eyes.

“I _knew_ there was something about you.”

That’s when the room erupts into chaos. Clary starts demanding answers from Luke. Alec and Jace start arguing about something Magnus can’t figure out, and Simon is rambling in Magnus’ general direction.

Magnus closes his eyes a second to calm himself and then his voice is booming above them all, hands crackling with magic as he does so.

All five of them are startled into silence and Magnus claps his hands together. He can’t help but notice the way Alec’s eyes have darkened as he looks at him in what looks like a mixture of surprise and awe.

“I’d prefer if you all didn’t shatter my eardrums,” he says calmly, “one at a time.”

He points at Luke first because he’s the only one Magnus knows is rational enough not to turn this into chaos again.

Luke turns to Clary with wide, honest eyes. “Jocelyn- your mother was married to Valentine, the leader of The Circle.”

Clary’s eyes widen but to her credit she doesn’t interrupt Luke, just stares incredulously at him as he continues.

“They were both my closest friends. But everything changed when Jocelyn realized that not all monsters deserved to die. The two of us worked together to try and take Valentine down. He found out and set me up to be bitten and turned into a werewolf. Jocelyn fled during the uprising battle. She was pregnant with you. I haven’t seen her since. I looked everywhere, but I could never find her.”

Magnus listens to the story he’s heard a dozen times. The story he had been there for. It’s different with Jocelyn’s daughter standing right there in front of them.

“You look so much like her,” Luke gets out on a whisper. There’s tears in both his and Clary’s eyes.

Clary gulps once, and Magnus is surprised when she lays a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“This is crazy,” she says on a watery chuckle, “this is all crazy.” She makes eye contact with Magnus who nods encouragingly.

“But I believe you,” Her eyes turn fierce with determination. “We need to save my mother.”

***  
They decide to split up. Luke, Clary, and Simon go to Jocelyn’s to distract the impundulu and Magnus, Alec, and Jace to go Iris’ to stop her.

Magnus isn’t all that worried. Iris may be a semi powerful witch but Magnus is much stronger. What he is worried about is keeping the hunters in check. No matter how much trouble Iris has gotten into, Magnus doesn’t like killing his own people.

When they get out of the car and he sees Alec and Jace load their guns with witch killing bullets, he stops them.

“Don’t shoot unless it’s absolutely necessary.” He says. They both send Magnus incredulous looks, but Magnus holds his ground.

He sees Alec’s eyes search his face, for what he doesn’t know, but he sighs and places the gun into his waistband with a decisive nod of his head.

“Okay.”

Magnus stares back, stunned. He’d been prepared for much more of a fight. He can tell Jace is surprised too. Alec’s body language is non-negotiable though, so Jace doesn’t try and argue.

Something close to respect for the hunters starts to grow in Magnus’ chest.

***  
They decide to sneak in through the back door, and Magnus groans when he sees that there are multiple locks on the door. Why does Iris choose now to start being careful?

Jace pushes his way to the door and sends Alec a grin. He pulls out a paper clip and slips it into the top lock expertly.

“I got this.”

Magnus rolls his eyes and waves his hand in one smooth motion. They haven’t got the time to wait for him to pick the multiple locks.

Jace’s hands still where they had been trying to pick the locks, and Alec looks up in confusion when the door swings forward slowly.

Magnus grins triumphantly to himself as Alec’s gaze falls onto him.

“How’d you do that?” He asks, gaze full of the same wonder he’d looked at him with back at the loft.

Magnus wiggles his fingers in the air and grins.

“Magic, darling.”

The fondly exasperated look Alec sends him as they step into the house does things to Magnus’ heart that he will never admit out loud.

They creep into the room to find it completely barren. There’s no furniture and the walls are bare. Magnus looks around curiously and startles when he feels a hand curl around his wrist.

He looks down to find Alec’s long fingers on his skin and can’t help but grin at the warmth they spread up his hand.

Alec doesn’t seem to notice the effect he has on Magnus because his hand is gone once he knows he has Magnus attention and he points to the wall where there are obvious scratches.

This must be where Iris keeps the impundulu.

Magnus places his other hand on his wrist where Alec had touched him and sees Alec’s eyes dart down at the movement. When he notices what Magnus is doing he smiles slightly. Magnus tries to hold back a blush and smiles back at the hunter.

They don’t see Iris come in. Magnus curses himself for getting distracted. He notices the familiar tug of another person's magic a second before there’s a blast of magic coming their way. He only has enough time to yell at Jace and Alec to watch out before Iris is in the room staring him down.

“Iris,” Magnus greets. He sees both Alec and Jace getting up from where they’d fallen to avoid the blow from the corner of his eye. Good. If he can keep Iris occupied, they can sneak up on her. He hopes they don’t resort to the guns.

While Alec and Jace had agreed not to kill unless absolutely necessary, the guns full of witch killing bullets in their waistbands still keep him a little on edge.

When Alec gets up and doesn’t reach for the gun, Magnus feels some of the tenseness in him deflate.

“I’ve heard you’re up to mischief again,” He says, fully turning his attention to Iris.

Instead of an answer Iris sends another blast of magic his way. Magnus easily deflects it with his own magic.

Alec and Jace are behind Iris now. Magnus watches as Jace goes to kick her legs out from under her but Iris turns and knocks him off his feet.

“You’re working with _hunters_ now?” She hisses out, magic swirling violently around her as she steps towards Magnus.

Magnus stares defiantly back. He’s not scared of Iris. He pushes her back with an easy flick of his hand and smirks at the way Iris’ eyes flash at him in anger.

Alec is crouched next to Jace where he’d been thrown from the blast and is watching the two of them with wide eyes. Magnus supposes its the first time he’s seen two witches fight each other.

“I thought you’d be the last person to work with hunters,” Iris spits out, “especially after what happened to your poor _friend_.” Her voice curls around the last word in a way that makes Magnus’ heart clench and he freezes.

His defense falters slightly, and Iris takes it as her chance. Before Magnus can think, he’s blasted against the wall and falls to the floor. The impact of the blow paired with the jibe about Ragnor keeps Magnus on the floor a second longer than he wants to be. He hadn’t expected that. He can still feel the knife like effect of the words in his chest.

He’s hit with another wave of magic and is back on the floor. This time anger floods through him. He is not going to lose a fight against Iris Rouse of all people. His magic is already hot on his fingers as he starts to pull himself to his knees.

That’s when Alec full on tackles Iris from behind, sending both of them to the floor. Magnus stares in shock a second. He’d forgotten the hunters were here for a moment.

He watches a second at the graceful movement of Alec’s body as he wrestles Iris to the ground and holds her down.

Magnus notices the gun on his waist still hasn’t been touched. Using the gun would have been much easier, and Magnus would have expected for the hunter to use it despite the agreement they’d made. He is surprised to find it untouched.

His surprise doesn’t last long because suddenly he hears Jace yell and sees the impundulu coming their way.

Magnus sends a blast of magic it’s way, channeling all his anger into the blow. The impundulu falls, but it seems unharmed and starts making its way towards Magnus again. He curses under his breath. The only person that can stop the creature is Iris.

Jace ends up beside him somehow, his posture defensive as he follows the impundulu as it moves.

“What the hell, it doesn't even have a scratch on it from that,” he mutters under his breath.

“We need to get Iris to stop it,” Magnus says, flicking his gaze to where Alec is struggling to keep Iris on the ground.

Magnus hears Jace’s panicked yell as Iris sends a huge blow at Alec that sends him into the wall with a deafening crack. Magnus watches in horror as a pillar falls over his crumpled form on the floor.

“Alec!”

Jace runs to Alec, and before Magnus can do anything Iris is running in the opposite direction out the door.

Magnus takes a step forward to run after her but hesitated when Alec’s crumpled bloody form comes into view.

If he goes after Iris he’d easily catch her, but Alec could die in that time.

He looks from the door to the crumpled hunter and back and then makes a choice.

***  
The first thing Alec registers when he blinks his eyes open is a searing pain in his ribs. The second thing he registers is that he doesn’t know where he is. He turns his head and sees that he’s laying in a bed. The sheets are soft under his body, and Alec realizes with a start that they might be silk.

He sits up slowly and looks around, groaning slightly as the pain in his ribs intensified as he moves. The windows are blocked by dark drapes, and there’s a dressing table with rings scattered across it.

Alec doesn’t recognize the room.

That’s when he starts to panic. The last thing he remembers in being in Iris’ house. What if she’s holding him captive? He needs to call Jace.

He stumbles out of the bed, wincing and cursing under his breath as his ribs scream in pain, and digs through his pockets trying to find his phone.

The door opens and Alec’s training instantly kicks in. He ignores the sharp pain and is immediately in a defensive stance, gaze locked on the doorway.

It’s Magnus. He narrows his eyes at Alec when he sees him, and Alec relaxes slightly, wincing again at the pain.

“Why are you out of bed?”

“I thought that-“

Magnus doesn’t wait for him to answer despite having asked the question and instead places a hand on his arm to help guide him back into the bed. Alec has to hold back a shudder at the way the warmth of Magnus’ hand warms his entire body.

“I’m fine,” Alec protests as Magnus holds out some sort of potion to him insisting it will help with the pain. It smells terrible and Alec will definitely gag if he tries to drink it.

Magnus rolls his eyes.

“Alexander, I know you’re in pain. You broke several ribs and lost a lot of blood. Don’t _I’m fine_ me.” Alec blushes at the sound of his full name leaving Magnus’ lips and tries to repeat that he’s fine. He doesn’t care if he broke several ribs. He does not want to drink that.

Magnus shoves the glass with the potion in his hands and sighs.

“ _Hunters_ ,” he mutters under his breath but there’s a hint of fondness in his tone that makes Alec smile softly and do as he says.

The potion tastes terrible just as Alec had thought it would, and he almost does gag it back up, but the soothing effect it has on the fire in his ribs paired with the grin Magnus gives him makes it worth it.

They stay like that a while, both smiling softly at each other until Alec breaks the silence.

“What happened?”

Magnus chuckles slightly before answering, and Alec admires the way his eyes crinkle slightly as he does.

“Well, after Iris sent you barrelling into a wall, she made a quick escape. Jace and I brought you back here so I could tend to your quite fatal wounds.”

Alec’s stares at Magnus in shock. It made sense that Magnus would have been the one to heal him, but he hadn’t put the pieces together.

“Why didn’t you go after Iris? She couldn’t have gone far that quickly.”

“And leave you to bleed out on her floor? Not a chance, I just started to like you pretty boy.” Alec flushes at the compliment and tries to hide it by asking another question.

“Why are you helping us?”

Magnus looks genuinely startled at the question but answers quickly.

“We’ve been over this. You’re pretty, and I like pretty things.”

Alec rolls his eyes, the compliment not having as much effect the second time.

“I don’t think you’re that shallow,” he challenges.

Magnus’ grin fades slightly at that, and Alec cringes inwardly. Maybe he took it too far. Magnus looks Alec up and down for a long moment, and Alec gets the feeling Magnus doesn’t know the answer to the question himself.

He sighs before bringing his legs up onto the bed and sitting criss cross in front of Alec.

“Did you ever stop to think that _maybe_ not all of us are evil?”

Alec stares for a second. He hadn’t thought that Magnus could be helping them simply out of the kindness of his heart.

“When I was young and I first found out I was a witch I had no one. My stepfather wanted nothing to do with me, my mother killed herself.”

Magnus says it’s casually, but Alec can tell from the way that his hands are curled in his lap that it’s anything but casual for him to talk about this.

“I’m sorry,” Alec gets out in a whisper, scared to break the fragileness between them.

“It was a long time ago,” Magnus sends him a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes but it’s better than nothing so Alec smiles tentatively back.

“Navigating the life of a witch on my own was terrible. So I vowed to myself that if I ever stumbled upon a monster that was struggling to cope with being pulled into this world I would do everything I could to help them,” he nods towards the door, “that’s how I stumbled upon our friend Sheldon.”

Alec laughs. “It’s Simon.”

Magnus waves a hand and grins at Alec. “Same thing.” Alec is comforted by the smile on his face despite the serious conversation.

“That doesn’t explain why you’re helping us, me and Jace, I mean. You don’t seem to like hunters very much.”

Magnus’ eyes turn sad again, and Alec worries he’s said something wrong for at least the third time in the conversation. He really is terrible at this.

“You’re right. I do. Usually I despise your kind. All holier than thou, kill all monsters on sight. You’re all a bunch of arrogant assholes to be honest.”

Alec should be offended by that, but for some reason he isn’t, instead he feels an odd pang of guilt. He’s met a lot of people this week that he definitely would have killed on sight if Magnus hadn’t stopped him. How many innocent monsters had he probably killed in in life?

“Hunters killed one of my best friends. For absolutely no reason other than the fact that he was a witch. I didn’t like hunters before that. But that tipped me over the edge, I’ve despised your kind ever since.”

Alec feels his heart drop at the way Magnus’ eyes seem to shine with unshed tears.

“I-“ he tries to say something comforting. Something to apologize but nothing comes out. What is he supposed to say to _that_?

“When I first saw you I thought you were the same as every other hunter I’d ever met. I wanted to despise you. I _tried_ to, but you’re different. I trust you for some reason.”

Alec just stares. He has no idea what to say.

“You listened to me. You didn’t use the bullets even though it would have been easier,” he looks down at Alec with a small smile. “You probably wouldn’t have broken ribs right now if you had used them.”

Alec chuckles slightly despite himself,wincing slightly when the movement sends pain into his ribs.

Magnus places a hand on his ribs, and the pain seems to fade a bit. He looks at Alec with wide honest eyes, and Alec can’t look away no matter how hard he tries.

“I trust you too you know? Though I have no idea why.” he says it softly and revels in the answering smile Magnus sends him.

“ _That’s_ why I’m helping you.”

Magnus’ eyes flick down to Alec’s lips as he says it, and Alec holds his breath without even thinking about it. His eyes flick down on their own volition and he looks at the inviting curve of Magnus’ lips. He wants those lips on his so badly. He wants to know what they would feel like under his. Has wanted to know all week. He almost groans in frustration when Magnus just keeps looking, eyes flicking from his lips to his eyes and then back again. _Move_ , he thinks, _kiss me_. But Magnus doesn’t move. Alec can’t take it anymore so he sits up and grabs ahold of Magnus’ shirt, pulling him down towards him. He hears Magnus laugh as he’s pulled down but he comes easily.

They stop with their lips an inch apart, and Alec watches Magnus’ eyes light up with mirth.

“Someone's eager,” he says, breath ghosting over Alec’s lips. Alec suppresses a shudder and rolls his eyes, leaning down with the intent of pressing their lips together.

He sees Magnus’ eyes flutter shut, but just before their lips can touch, the door swings open, and Jace is in standing in the doorway.

Alec springs away from Magnus and looks at Jace with wide eyes.

Jace grins knowingly at the two of them and Alec has to fight the urge to blush a bright red. Magnus doesn’t seem embarrassed at all, he’s staring up at Jace with his arms crossed, an annoyed set to his shoulders.

“What do you want?”

Jace hold up his hands in surrender.

“Sorry for ruining the moment, but we’ve found Iris’ location. She’s on the way to Jocelyn’s shop.”

With that, Jace leaves the room. Alec turns back to Magnus who still looks slightly annoyed at being interrupted.

Alec sighs. “Sometimes I hate him.”

Magnus grins at him with bright eyes, and Alec almost leans in again but stops himself.

Good thing too, because suddenly Izzy and Lydia are barrelling into the room.

“Alec don’t you ever scare me like that again!”

Izzy is on him in a second with a bone crushing hug. If Magnus hadn’t almost fully healed his ribs, Alec would definitely be cringing in pain.

Lydia smiles at Alec from the doorway.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

Alec smiles at her over Izzy’s shoulder.

“Me too.”

***  
They decide not to underestimate Iris and her impundulu a second time, and everyone goes to capture her purely by outnumbering her.

They meet up at Jocelyn’s art store. Thankfully, Iris hasn’t gotten there yet so they can hatch a plan.

“Luke?” Jocelyn looks up from an easel and smiles slightly when they enter. Her eyes widen when the rest of the group walks in behind him.

When Luke, Clary, and Simon had gone to warn Jocelyn the previous day her and Luke had straightened things out with Clary and each other as much as they could. Magnus hasn’t seen Luke look so happy in all the years he’s known him.

“Iris is coming here.” Clary explains, and Jocelyn’s eyes harden. He sees the way she reverts back into a hunter. Her eyes calculating and full of determination. Magnus figures it’s in her blood, no matter how long she’s gone without hunting.

“Okay,” she looks between all the people in the shop with calculating eyes, “we have enough people to overwhelm her, but we need a plan.”

The group nods and they get to work. The nine of them work surprisingly well together despite their disparate backgrounds, and Magnus can’t help but feel a pleased smile slip onto his face as he gets into his position.

Lydia and Izzy, who Alec says work amazingly as a team, go in the back to prepare for a sneak attack. Luke, Clary, and Simon stay with Jocelyn as bait. And Jace, Alec and Magnus go wait by the front door for Iris to arrive.

They see the impundulu before they see Iris, and Jace sends a warning signal to Clary who’s watching from the window before they three of them step out to deter the flying creature’s attack.

Alec shoots an arrow at the creature shooting it clear out of the sky, and Magnus turns with wide eyes.

Alec shrugs nonchalantly, but Magnus can see a smug smile curving over his lips.

“I’m a good shot.”

The words paired with the smile does something to Magnus’ chest that he can't analyze because Iris has shown up in the shop behind them, and Jace is pulling them both inside as the impundulu crashes through the glass doors.

Lydia and Izzy have already got Iris pinned to the wall, and Jocelyn is fending the impundulu off, Luke at her back.

Alec shoots another well aimed arrow at the creature while Jace goes to help Izzy and Lydia.

Magnus starts chanting under his breath and then fires the spell Iris’ way. She freezes once the blast hits her and the three hunters back away.

Iris is bound, hands behind her back with magic and Magnus smirks proudly.

“Anti-magic binding spell.” He explains, stepping closer to Iris.

“Call off the impundulu.” He says, voice lowered and threatening. Iris seems to understand that Magnus isn’t going to let her off easily, and the impundulu falls back from Jocelyn and Luke.

Magnus sends another spell, binding the impundulu as well just in case.

“What’s going to happen to her?” Alec asks, eyes darting to where Iris is struggling against the bond.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of her,” Magnus sends him a wink and delights in the flush that makes its way onto his cheeks.

***  
They all gather the next day to see the hunters off.

Magnus stands with Clary, Luke, Jocelyn, and Simon as the hunters load their things into their car.

Magnus sidles up to Simon to talk to him.

“What’s up?” Simon asks with a crooked smile. He’d thanked Magnus profusely dozens of times for proving him innocent and Magnus has become much too fond of him.

He smiles slightly down at the young vampire who smiles back.

“I wanted to tell you that my friend, Raphael, is the head of a vampire clan in Queens. He’s more than willing to take you in if you’d like and help show you the ropes of being a vampire.”

Magnus can tell Simon isn’t sure about the idea but he doesn’t want to push so he just waits patiently for an answer. Simon looks at Clary tentatively and she smiles encouragingly at him.

“I think it’s a good idea. It’s not super far from Brooklyn so you wouldn’t have to completely abandon your family and I could come visit you tons. Plus you’ll have someone to help you with the whole vampire thing.”

That seems to quell Simon’s worries, and he nods at Magnus.

“Okay-yeah, that sounds nice.”

Jocelyn sends Simon a proud smile where she’s satanding with Luke.

Magnus smiles encouragingly at Simon as he gives him Raphael’s number and promises to introduce them later.

They’re interrupted when Jace runs over and grabs Clary’s arm.

“I’ll see again won’t I?” He seems out of breath and to Magnus’ surprise he sees Clary’s eyes light up as she looks at him.

She grins up at him and leans in to kiss him.

Magnus is only a little bit surprised. He’s more surprised at the fond look Jace gives Clary as they pull apart and the way Clary laughs at something he whispers into her ear.

Interesting.

***  
Alec rolls his eyes as Jace hurries back to the car with a smug smile on his face.

“He looks way too proud of himself,” Lydia mutters under her breath, and Alec can’t help but laugh at the distaste in her tone.

Izzy hits her girlfriend in the shoulder, and Lydia half heartedly apologizes.

As Lydia and Jace start to get into the car, Izzy nudges him with her hip.

Alec looks down at her questioningly and sighs at the mischievous look she sends him.

“I see how you’re looking over there,” She says knowingly. “Go talk to him.”

Alec curses his little sister’s perceptiveness. No one else had noticed him watching Magnus from afar.

He sighs in resignation before pushing off of where he’d been leaning against the car. He _does_ want to talk to Magnus. This may be the last time he sees him. The thought doesn’t sit right in his stomach.

Magnus sees him walking towards the little group in the corner and moves to meet him halfway.

“Er- hi,” Alec stutters out when he winds up standing in front of Magnus.

“Hi,” Magnus replies, a soft smile on his face. Alec just about melts on the spot.

“I um- I wanted to thank you. For helping us.”

Magnus’ eyes crinkle as he smiles and to Alec’s surprise, he grabs Alec’s waist and pulls him flush against his body.

“Thank _you_ for not being an arrogant asshole,” He whispers into the small amount of space between them, and then, before Alec can even think of what to reply to that, they’re kissing.

Magnus swallows the soft noise of surprise Alec lets out as their lips press together, and Alec sees stars.

The kiss is soft and intimate, despite the fact that there are out in the open, and multiple people are probably watching them right now.

Alec doesn’t really care to be honest. He gets lost in the curve of Magnus’ lips and the way he runs his hand down Alec’s side, sending shivers down his back.

They kiss for god knows how long, Alec loses track of the time. When they pull apart for breath Magnus is breathing hard, and Alec can’t help the giddy laugh he lets out.

“That was long overdue,” Magnus says, pressing another chaste kiss to his lips. Alec can’t help but grin into it.

Alec sees Magnus’ gaze shift to over his shoulder and Alec turns to see his siblings and Lydia watching with knowing grins from the car.

“We have a bit of an audience,” Alec says with a laugh. “I guess I should get going.”

He feels the disappointment at leaving Magnus in his stomach again, and Magnus must see it on his face because he smiles comfortingly at Alec.

“Oh don’t look so sad, I’ll see you around Alexander.”

And with that he’s gone.

Later, when Alec is in the car, he sees the phone number left on his arm.

He grins the whole way home.

**Author's Note:**

> So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed! I purposefully left the end a bit open ended because I might come back and write something else in this verse. So I’m sorry if you didn’t get complete closure about everything lol. 
> 
> In any case! Hope it was a good read! Comments and Kudos are appreciated!!


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